Editing Defeat is an Orphan: Robert Collins (section)

== Background==

Robert Collins was a foundling deposited at the orphanage in 1897 - he was baptized Robert Collins because one of the orderlies on duty at time was a huge Boston Beaneaters fan, and named him after Bobby Lowe and Jimmy Collins. Bobby grew up smart but scrappy, learning to fight his corner in the orphanage without coming across as a stuffed-shirt. Being made to wear glasses from an early age didn't help. He made up in dogged persistence what he lacked in strength and weight. He also developed a chip on his shoulder about education, dreaming of a university place he never could aspire to as a poor orphan boy. He learned what he could in journalism at the orphanage, editing the orphans' magazine and studying through correspondence courses. By the time he left the orphanage, he already had a junior reporter post lined up at a local paper. That same scrappiness and chippiness led him to sign up for military service in 1917, and he served in France during World War 1. A solid service record, and some stirring dispatches from the Front, helped his professional standing, and on returning from France, he found himself a position at the Boston Globe. He's now a rising reporter covering city news.

Bobby is very conflicted about the orphanage - loves it and resents it fiercely. It was his home and his family, but it's also the reason why he never had a real one of either, and it's what held him back from going to university (he thinks). Also, he learned some hard lessons at the New Old Way about standing up to bullies - lessons that have stood him in good stead and got him into trouble more than once, especially when reporting on Boston's mob.

Bobby is all about uncovering secrets - the secret of his own real parents and pedigree being perhaps the main motivating one. If he comes across a mystery, he'll jump right at it, and will resent anything holding him back from investigating further.